I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for maintaining a data connection during a dormant data session with a wireless communication network.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, packet data, broadcast, messaging, and so on. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) networks.
A wireless device (e.g., a cellular phone) may originate a packet data call to establish a data session with a wireless network. As part of the data call setup, a data connection is established among network entities that will serve the wireless device for the data session, which are called serving network entities. Thereafter, the wireless device may send or receive packet data via the serving network entities. The data session may be sporadically active for only a small portion of the time and may be dormant for much of the time.
The wireless device may roam while the data session is dormant and may move out of the coverage of the serving network entities. In some instances, the wireless device may not be able to update the data connection to new network entities that can serve the wireless device for the data session. This may be the case, for example, if the wireless device has an ongoing voice call and is not permitted to send signaling during the voice call to update the data connection for the data session. If the data connection is not updated and the wireless network thereafter has packet data to send to the wireless device, then the wireless device may miss the packet data because the data connection is erroneous.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to maintain a data connection during a dormant data session.